Trixxstrr Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review

I finished Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and I was very impressed. This French game made by a small studio sets the bar for what a small team can do compared to other big games. The story of the paintress counting down to 33 and what was happening to this world was very intriguing with twists that left you wanting to know more without feeding you all the details of what’s behind everything. The characters were interesting and varied and it was great getting to know them all. The music was amazing throughout and was a standout part of the game. Everything looked beautiful and the environments were well varied. The gameplay of turn based combat with quick time was mostly ok for me. I’m not great with this style of quick button presses so I basically ignored the harder parry option and stuck with the easier dodge timing. It was still a bit too hard for me but that’s ok. I did drop down to story mode for the last section after getting a bit frustrated with failing on normal too many times. And some of the side stuff I skipped that was based on a bit too precise movement for my liking. The skill trees were maybe a bit too full of options for me with deciding what abilities to swap out but I got into a groove of what worked for me after a bit. Some minor complaints around getting a bit lost in the areas with no map, and even the overworld which had a map would have been nice to have a mini map on screen to not need to open the full map as much. Some other little things like menus not saving sort, but not worth holding it against it for. I finished in 32 hrs and I was at level 55. The story was great and left me with wanting more at every turn. Overall it was really great with a few minor complaints.